Introduction

One of the most serious scientific problems for young earth creationism is
that of distant starlight and the time it would take that starlight to reach the
earth. The crux of the problem is that light travels at a set speed and nearly
all the objects in the universe are farther from the earth than the young
earth proposed
6,000 year age for the universe. If the young earth model for the universe is
correct, we should not be able to see any other galaxies in the universe or
even the majority of stars in our own Milky Way galaxy. Obviously, we can see
those objects, so young earth creationists are forced to do something radical with
light travel times. Numerous individuals have proposed that the speed of light
has changed, light was created in transit, light travels infinitely fast when
coming toward the earth, among others. Young earth creationists ignore the
most obvious solution to the problem—light from objects billions of light
years away has been traveling for billions of years. Danny Faulkner of Answers
in Genesis (AiG) says he has a "new" solution to the problem. Let's look at it.

Starlight and day 4

Most young earth creationists don't realize that the young earth model
contradicts God's account of the fourth creation day in Genesis 1:

And God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of
the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to
mark seasons and days and years, (Genesis 1:14)

Since the closest star is 4 light years away, according to young earth
creationism, there would have been no stars visible on earth for at least 4
years (the light travel time for the closest star). So, the stars God
created on the fourth day would have been useless to accomplish His purpose
of serving as "signs to mark seasons and days and years." However, according
to old earth creationism, the entire universe (including the stars, Sun, and
earth) was created in the beginning (Genesis1:1), with the light from those objects
becoming visible on day 4 (prior to day 4 those objects could not be seen from the surface
of the earth due to cloud
cover1). If the stars had been created
on the fourth day, even after 4 years, stars would have begun only slowly
appearing over the last 6,000 years. Since the distances between stars is so
great, even after 6,000 years, only about 1% of our galaxy should be
observable today (see graphic, right). Since the closest large galaxy,
Andromeda, is over 2 million light years distant, light from that galaxy
should not be visible from earth for another 2 million years. Likewise, the
Virgo cluster of galaxies would not be visible for 60 million years. The
Hubble Space Telescope has detected galaxy clusters that are over 12 billion
light years away. None of these objects should be visible from earth unless
God did something dramatic to light travel times from these distant objects.

New solution

Faulkner's new solution to the problem of distant starlight is "As a part
of God’s formative work, light from the astronomical bodies was miraculously
made to 'shoot' its way to the earth at an abnormally accelerated rate in
order to fulfill their function of serving to indicate signs, seasons, days,
and years."2 Faulkner makes it clear that he
offers "no physical mechanism" by which this acceleration occurred. In other
words, God performed a miracle. There are a couple ways this miracle could
have occurred. According to Faulkner, "I propose that the stretching of the
heavens may refer to rapid stretching of space to get starlight to the earth
on Day Four, the same day that stars were made."2
This proposal is quite an admission from AiG, since it basically says the same
thing as old earth creationists propose—only on an extremely accelerated
basis. Although Faulkner doesn't use the term, what he is proposing is nothing
more than an extremely rapid Big Bang model for how God created the universe! Of course, if AiG
knew that Faulkner's new solution to the distant starlight problem was really
a super-fast Big Bang model in disguise, they would have gone ballistic, since they
repudiate the Big Bang in no uncertain terms.3
Even Faulkner himself has authored an article renouncing the Big Bang.4

Observational problems with the "solution"

Faulkner's new model does make many more predictions than he originally
thought. According to Faulkner, "I ought to emphasize that one expectation of this solution to the light
travel time problem is that we probably are looking at the entire universe
in something close to real time, regardless of how far away individual
objects may be." Here are the predictions one would expect from the Faulkner Model:

The most dramatic prediction of the Faulkner model is that there should
be no redshifts from distant galaxies. The Big Bang model predicts that the
most distant objects should be moving away from us the fastest. Since light
travels at a constant velocity, the wavelengths of the light from such
objects should be stretched, producing a redshift, or longer wavelengths.
Observational evidence (see figure at right) shows that the Big Bang model
prediction on the speed of distant objects is correct and Faulkner's model
is incorrect.5

The Big Bang model predicts that the universe should appear to be hotter
the further away in space we look, since we are looking at the universe at
an early time in its history. Since light travels at a constant rate and the
universe is expanding at nearly the velocity of light, we can see objects as
they appeared billions of years ago. According to the Big Bang model, the
universe began as an extremely dense object. The collision of anti-quarks
and quarks (in an excess of only one part in a billion) produced a
tremendous amount of energy and heat and all the matter found in the universe.
Contrary to young earth claims, this "explosion" was highly fine-tuned,
requiring that the mass density of the universe be precise to within one
part in 1059. As the universe expanded, it also cooled as the
heat from the annihilation of quarks and anti-quarks dissipated. As we look
further in space, we look back in time and can observe the background
temperature of the universe as it was billions of years ago. As predicted by
the Big Bang model, the universe was hotter earlier in its history6
(see graph at right, above). Faulkner's model would predict we would not see
any temperature differences as we look further in space, since it says that
all such objects were created at exactly the same time, and did not result
from an extremely exothermic process (such as the Big Bang). So, again, Faulkner's model is
falsified by the observational evidence.

The most spectacular failure of the Faulkner model is that it directly
contradicts what the Bible predicts the universe should look like. Eleven
verse in the Old Testament make the claim that God stretched out the heavens
(and is continuing to do so).7
This would mean
that the universe should be less dense the further we look into space. Since
the Faulkner model says that we are looking at the universe in real time, we
should see the galaxies looking further apart the more distant we look in
space. However, what we see is exactly the opposite. The further we look in
space, the more galaxies we see (see Hubble ultra-deep field image to
right). All those objects are distant galaxies in an area of the sky where
no stars are visible. The density is much higher further away than close to
us (where there is only one large galaxy—Andromeda—and a few
dwarf galaxies). So, did the Bible get it wrong? No! As mentioned
previously, when we look deeper in space, we are looking back in time
(because of light travel times). So, this Hubble image is actually looking
at the universe as it appeared nearly 12 billion years ago. Since Faulkner
says that we are looking at the universe in real time, his model would
predict that we should see more galaxies closer to us and fewer further
away. Obviously, his model fails to correctly predict the nature of the
universe.

Implications about God

As bad as its correlation with the observational evidence, the new
Faulkner model makes some wild claims about how God created the universe.
Since, according to the model, all the starlight reached the earth at the
same time after the stars were created on day 4, God would have had to
individually adjust the starlight from each of every star in the universe (which
we know has about 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars). As such,
Faulkner's model is the ultimate appearance of age argument,
since God would have had to individually adjust the light paths of all those
stars and then adjust the wavelength of the light from all those stars to make
them appear as though they were travelling at different speeds
relative to earth. It would be the ultimate deception by God. Contrary to
Faulkner's God, the Bible says the heavens declare God to be truthful and
righteous:

The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his
hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display
knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard.
Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the
world. (Psalm 19:1-4)

And the heavens proclaim His righteousness, for God Himself is
judge. Selah (Psalm 50:6)

The heavens proclaim His righteousness, and all the peoples see His
glory. (Psalm 97:6)

Rebuttal from AiG!

One remarkable thing about the "new" solution to the distant starlight
problem is that it has already been rebutted on the AiG website. In
2003, John G. Hartnett wrote about the proposal of a rapidly expanding
universe.

"The universe was accelerated like fast-forwarding a
videotape, and after all the light information reached the Earth the rates
were reduced to what we now measure. The problem with this model is that the
stars would disappear from view as the light slowed down, subsequently
taking millions and billions of years to get to Earth. Also, such light
arriving at the Earth would show enormous observable blueshifts.3
It doesn’t."8

Conclusions

Danny Faulkner of Answers in Genesis says that he has solved young earth
creationism's starlight travel time problem. In reality, Faulkner's
"solution" contradicts both the Bible and observational evidence of the
universe. Ultimately, Faulkner's model requires God to have created a false history of the universe,
which produces a direct attack on the righteous
character of God and cannot be tolerated within the Church! The God who
would deceive His creatures with lies is not the God of the Bible. The
bizarre attempts of Answers in Genesis to support their failed young earth
paradigm stands in stark contrast to the simplicity of the
Old Earth interpretation of Genesis. The reason why
distant stars are billions of light years away is because God created them
billions of years ago and has been spreading them out ever since, as declared in
the Bible.7 Instead of following the young earth
paradigm, young earth creationists should examine the old earth interpretation,
which presents the simplest and most consistent biblical
and scientific explanation of creation.

References

In the book of Job, God Himself told Job why the earth was
dark at its creation:
"Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? ...When I made a
cloud its garment, And thick darkness its swaddling band" (Job 38:4-9)

Bible verses say that God stretched out the heavens
and is still stretching out the heavens (continuing action):

Who alone stretches out the heavens, And tramples down the waves of
the sea; (Job 9:8)

Covering Thyself with light as with a cloak, Stretching out heaven
like a tent curtain. (Psalm 104:2)

It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, And its inhabitants
are like grasshoppers, Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain And
spreads them out like a tent to dwell in. (Isaiah 40:22)

Thus says God the Lord, Who created the heavens and stretched them
out, Who spread out the earth and its offspring, Who gives breath to the
people on it, And spirit to those who walk in it, (Isaiah 42:5)

Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, and the one who formed you from the
womb, "I, the Lord, am the maker of all things, Stretching out the
heavens by Myself, And spreading out the earth all alone" (Isaiah
44:24)

"It is I who made the earth, and created man upon it. I stretched
out the heavens with My hands, And I ordained all their host." (Isaiah
45:12)

"Surely My hand founded the earth, And My right hand spread out
the heavens; When I call to them, they stand together." (Isaiah
48:13)

That you have forgotten the Lord your Maker, Who stretched out the
heavens, And laid the foundations of the earth; That you fear
continually all day long because of the fury of the oppressor, As he
makes ready to destroy? But where is the fury of the oppressor? (Isaiah
51:13)

It is He who made the earth by His power, Who established the world by
His wisdom; And by His understanding He has stretched out the heavens. (Jeremiah
10:12)

It is He who made the earth by His power, Who established the world by
His wisdom, And by His understanding He stretched out the heavens. (Jeremiah
51:15)

The burden of the word of the Lord concerning Israel. Thus declares
the Lord who stretches out the heavens, lays the foundation of the
earth, and forms the spirit of man within him, (Zechariah 12:1)